China's Hawaii Is Turning Off the Great Firewall for Tourists

In a bid to encourage more tourists to visit China's southern province of Hainan, the government is willing to turn off the Great Firewall and allow access to blocked services such as Twitter, Gmail, and Facebook.

The Chinese government goes to great lengths to control what is said and what is viewed on the internet. That's how we ended up with the so-called Great Firewall of China and why so many services, including Gmail, Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are blocked. However, the situation is changing in China's southern province of Hainan.

As Reuters reports, Hainan is China's equivalent of Hawaii, offering a "resort-lined coastline" and "balmy climate." In order to be a successful tourist location it needs to attract them from around the world, and so the decision has been taken to turn off the Great Firewall for tourists in Hainan.

Of course, turning off the Great Firewall comes with its own restrictions. Hainan will have a "gathering zone" within which foreign tourists can access all the internet-dependent services they are used to at home. Outside of the zone, all restrictions still apply.

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The decision to relax the rules is part of a wider goal by the local Hainan government to increase visitor numbers by 25 percent every year and reach two million visitors per year by 2020. Credit and debit cards issued by Visa and Mastercard will be fully-supported by all tourist sites, hotels, and stores by 2019. There are also plans to turn Hainan into a free trade zone by then, therefore increasing the popularity of the destination even further and encouraging development of the region.

Reaction to the plans was not exactly positive on Chinese social media, with one microblogger on Weibo asking the question, "Are we establishing the 'one country, two system' policy in Mainland China now?"

About the Author

Matthew is PCMag's UK-based editor and news reporter. Prior to joining the team, he spent 14 years writing and editing content on our sister site Geek.com and has covered most areas of technology, but is especially passionate about games tech. Alongside PCMag, he's a freelance video game designer. Matthew holds a BSc degree in Computer Science from... See Full Bio

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